1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved spraying apparatus and method which utilize a canister that receives containers of fluid to be sprayed.
2. Prior Art
Many proposals have been made in efforts to provide apparatus for interchangeably spraying various types of liquids. Problems common to most spraying apparatus proposals are their inabilities to accommodate fluids of a wide range of viscosities, and their failures to provide desired degrees of discharge rate adjustability. A further problem with prior proposals has been the difficulty that is encountered in trying to switch from spraying one type of liquid to spraying another type of liquid.
Most previously proposed spraying systems require that an operator carefully clean the spraying apparatus when a change is made between liquids being sprayed. The operator must carefully clean not only internal passages of the spraying apparatus through which liquid is ducted from a canister to a nozzle for spraying, but also such interior surfaces of the canister and external surfaces of the spraying apparatus as have been exposed to the first liquid which has been sprayed. The cleaning procedures that are required to make a change from one liquid being sprayed to a different liquid are painstaking and time consuming, and result in a costly amount of undesirable "down time."
While spray regulating devices of various types have been proposed in efforts to render spraying systems adjustable so that changes can be made to accommodate sprayable liquids having different properties, and to accommodate various ambient conditions, such proposals have typically failed to provide a means by which changes can be made rapidly and efficiently between different types of liquids to be sprayed. A similar type of drawback of most prior spraying system proposals lies in the inabilities of the proposed systems to be adjusted quickly and easily to provide desired rates of discharge for use with various types of sprayable liquids.
3. The Referenced Spraying Apparatus Case
The referenced Spraying Apparatus Case addresses the need which has long existed to provide a means for permitting a spraying apparatus to be adjusted readily and easily to accommodate different types of liquids being sprayed, to adjust discharge flow rates of material being sprayed, and to accommodate changes in ambient conditions. The present invention preferably utilizes features of the methods and spraying apparatus embodiments described in the Spraying Apparatus Case to enhance the ease with which changes can be made from spraying one liquid to spraying another liquid. However, as will be apparent from the description which follows, the system of the present invention can be used with a wide variety of spraying systems including those which do not incorporate such features as form the subject matter of the Spraying Apparatus Case.